I never took it literally, all these years:

Revelation 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

For some reason, I always seemed to have read the above, to say, "calculate the number".

I never seemed to take it literally, to "count the number".

But doesn't it say, "count", and not, "calculate"?

I guess because of my scientific background and education, my pride was stimulated,

by a challenge to "calculate", rather than to simply "count" like a young child would.

Perhaps it would have required humility on my part, to approach the passage like a child,

but how many times, over how many years, did my pride stop me from doing that?

Shame on me.